Hilton Head Island: another pushup

 

I gave a talk at a local yacht club a couple of weeks ago and I began it with a variation on my CCA acceptance speech from five years ago.

https://www.inthepresentsea.com/the_actual_site/acceptance_speech.html

Back then I said:  Age 76 and the year 2018 are numbers from science fiction.   So how much more are age 82 and the year 2023.  It is in some ways amusing to be in the oldest 1% of our species, but this is becoming absurd.  As you can see from the above photo taken on the last passage of GANNET’s circumnavigation, I am fading.

I also now have to do another push-up.

I have told this story before, but in early 1993 I gave a lecture series on the east coast, starting in Boston and ending in Miami.  Steve Earley and his father attended in Norfolk, but I did not know him then.  He says I am one of the influences that led to his becoming the most experienced coastal open boat sailor, so I have done some good.

In Annapolis I was asked how I stay in condition.  I related my workouts, including doing my age in pushups.  I was a mere 51 then and added, “Just think what great shape I’ll be in when I’m 100.”  Everyone laughed as I intended them too.  But, my word, I’m getting there.

If you know anything about me, you know I plan and I prepare, so I have already been doing 82 push-ups and crunches in the first set of my standard workout for the past three weeks.  I’m good for another year.

L’Chaim.